2012 Marty Hall

Android Programming: Overview

Originals of Slides and Source Code for Examples: http://www.coreservlets.com/android-tutorial/
Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/
Java, JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Servlets, JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Spring, Hibernate, RESTful Web Services, Hadoop, Android.

Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

2012 Marty Hall

For live Android training, please see courses at http://courses.coreservlets.com/.

Taught by the author of Core Servlets and JSP, More Servlets and JSP, and this Android tutorial. Available at public venues, or customized versions can be held on-site at your organization.
Courses developed and taught by Marty Hall Courses developed and taught by coreservlets.com experts (edited by Marty)
JSF 2, PrimeFaces, servlets/JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Android development, Java 6 or 7 programming, custom mix of topics Ajax courses can concentrate on 1EE library (jQuery, Prototype/Scriptaculous, Ext-JS, Dojo, etc.) or survey several Customized Java Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/

Java, JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Servlets, JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Spring, Hibernate, RESTful Web Services, Hadoop, Android. Spring, Hibernate/JPA, EJB3, GWT, Hadoop, SOAP-based and RESTful Web Services
Contact hall@coreservlets.com for details Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

Topics in This Section

Motivation
Web Apps vs. Mobile Apps iPhone Apps vs. Android Apps

Books and references

2012 Marty Hall

Web Apps vs. Android Apps

Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/
Java, JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Servlets, JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Spring, Hibernate, RESTful Web Services, Hadoop, Android.

Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

Advantages of Web Apps

Universal access
Browsers are everywhere Any device on the network can access content
PCs, Macs, Linux, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.

Automatic updates
Content comes from server, so is never out of date

Well-established tools and methodologies

In multiple languages
Java, PHP, .NET, Ruby/Rails, CGI, etc.
6

Disadvantages of Web Apps

Few and weak GUI controls
Textfield, text area, button, checkbox, radio, list box, combo box. Thats it! No direct drawing (except for HTML5 Canvas)

Cannot interact with local resources

Cannot read files, call programs, or access devices on the users machine

Inefficient communication
HTTP is weak protocol

Hard to write
Requires knowledge of many technologies
Java, HTML, HTTP, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, XML

Designed for large displays with mouse

7

So harder to use on small phone displays with touch screen

Advantages of Mobile Apps

Many GUI controls
Textfield, text area, button, checkbox, radio, list box, combo box, clock, calendar, date picker, dialog box, image gallery, etc.
Comparable to options in desktop programming

Supports direct drawing

So animated games ala Angry Birds possible

Can interact with local resources

Can read files (e.g., contacts list), have local database, access GPS, initiate phone calls, get input from microphone, create voice output, read screen orientation, etc.

Advantages of Mobile Apps (Continued)

Efficient communication
Can use any networking protocols you want

Easier (?) to write

Requires knowledge of one language only
Java for Android Objective C for iPhone

Designed for small displays with touch screen

So, many apps and GUI controls are optimized for this environment
9

Disadvantages of Mobile Apps

No universal access
Apps must be installed one at a time on each phone An Android app cannot run on iPhone, Blackberry, PC, Mac, or Linux box

Difficult to manage updates

User must intervene to get latest versions

Newer (esp. Android)

So, fewer established tools and methodologies
On the other hand, Android programming is similar to desktop Java programming, and there are plenty of established approaches there

10

2012 Marty Hall

Android Apps vs. iPhone Apps

Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/
Java, JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Servlets, JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Spring, Hibernate, RESTful Web Services, Hadoop, Android.

Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

Installing Apps
General apps
iPhone has larger selection Android trying to catch up

In-house-developed corporate apps

iPhone apps can only be installed via the App Store
iPhone requires you to submit app to the Apple App Store and get approval, even for apps from your own company
Unless you jailbreak your phone

Android apps can be installed through

Google App Store Amazon App Store USB connection from PC Email Corporate Web site

12

Languages for Apps

iPhone
Objective-C
Similar to, but not exactly the same as, C++ Virtually no corporate presence for Objective-C, other than for mobile apps

Android
Java
The single most widely used language inside corporations

C/C++
Can call native apps (with some difficulty) via an approach similar to JNI for desktop Java

The real reason Android runs Java

From Randall Munroe and xkcd.com 13

Operating Systems for Developing Apps

iPhone
Macs

Android
Anything with Java and Eclipse
Macs PCs Linux Solaris
From http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/mac-vs-pc-myth-busting-consumer-guide/

Issue
Not so much which is cooler and which you personally prefer, but rather which is already installed in corporate environments.

14

Programming Jobs: Android vs. iPhone

Caveat: Indeed.com shows rough trends only

15

Job postings with both words anywhere in posting Biased by the job sites it samples

Google Search Trends: Android vs. iPhone Programming

Caveat: search volume shows rough trends only

16

For example, one of Android or iPhone might have clearer documentation, and require less searching

Advertising Revenue: Android (53%) vs. iPhone (27%)

17

Caveats: advertising does not equate to market volume, biased by who Millennial Media works with

Market Presence

Caveat: based on survey, not sales data

18

Raw data at http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/7/comScore_Reports_May_2011_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

Other Issues
Market presence based on sales data
Blackberry & iPhone used to dominate smart phone market 2nd quarter 2010 smart phone sales (source: Nielsen)
Blackberry: 33% Android: 27%
Caveats: these are sum of all Android devices. And, many Android phones given away for free with carrier subscriptions. Also, these numbers partially contradict graph on previous slide.

iPhone: 23%

Phone features, quality of apps, and coolness factors

Matter of opinion, but iPhone very strong here

19

From Randall Munroe and xkcd.com

Bottom Line: iPhone vs. Android

Which to use personally
iPhone has large market share, bigger app store, cooler interface (?), and more loyal users Android more open and growing more rapidly Bottom line: no clear winner, personal preferences prevail, but iPhone has edge

Which to use for in-house corporate apps

iPhone apps very hard to install, Android simple iPhone uses Objective C, Android uses Java Bottom line: Android is clear winner

20

2012 Marty Hall

Wrap-Up
Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/
Java, JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Servlets, JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Spring, Hibernate, RESTful Web Services, Hadoop, Android.

Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

References
Books (in rough order of preference)
Professional Android 4 Application Development (Meier) Busy Coders Guide to Android Development (Murphy)
Online only: http://commonsware.com/Android/

Android Cookbook (Darwin) Pro Android 3 (Komateni et al) Android Developers Cookbook (Steele & To) Android in Action, 2nd Edition (Ableson, Sen, & King) Android Application Development for Dummies (Felker)

Online references
http://developer.android.com/
By far the most important single reference.

Android forum on StackOverflow

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android

Android widget gallery

http://www.droiddraw.org/widgetguide.html
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Summary
Web apps vs. Android apps
Web apps can run on Android, iPhone, Blackberry and regular computers. But, they have weaker GUIs, cannot use local resources (files, databases, GPS, camera), and are often ill-suited to small screens Android apps can local resources, are optimized for small screens, have richer GUIs, but cannot be accessed on other phone types or on regular computers

iPhone vs. Android

For personal use, situation is unclear, but edge to iPhone For building corporate apps, Android is clear winner

23

 2012 Marty Hall

Questions?
JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Java 7, Ajax, jQuery, Hadoop, RESTful Web Services, Android, Spring, Hibernate, Servlets, JSP, GWT, and other Java EE training.

Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/

Java, JSF 2, PrimeFaces, Servlets, JSP, Ajax, jQuery, Spring, Hibernate, RESTful Web Services, Hadoop, Android.

Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.